Issues: Housing

Senator Liz Krueger is the new ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee. She joined Liz Benjamin to discuss the progress being made toward reaching a budget deal – possibly ahead of schedule and how rent control could cause Democrats to vote against any budget, if the issue is not included.

New York State Senator Reverend Rubén Díaz (D-Bronx) has released the following statement calling upon all of his Black and Hispanic colleagues in the Senate and in the Assembly to vote against any budget that does not include rent regulation.

“I am calling upon all of my colleagues in the Senate and the Assembly – especially my colleagues who are Black and Hispanic – to refuse to vote for any Budget without rent regulation protection. These protections limit rent and rent hikes that landlords can charge on more than a million apartments in New York.

Community members and elected officials are furious that a report studying ways to fund Brooklyn Bridge Park’s massive maintenance budget may be leaving good cash on the table.

A consultant hired to search for revenue to maintain the park without building residences within its waterfront footprint released a draft report last month that predicted non-housing options could generate $2.5 million to $7 million — not even half of the ballooning $16-million maintenance budget.

The Emergency Tenant Protection Act, the state statute under which residential rent regulation in New York City is authorized, expires on June 15. Governor Cuomo’s Executive Budget amendments released earlier this month do not provide for its renewal. This is a matter of concern for many Brooklyn Heights residents who rent instead of own, including tenants in the Alfred T. White Riverside Apartments on Columbia Place between Joralemon and State streets. In response, State Senator Daniel Squadron has written a letter to the Governor urging his support for extension of ETPA, as well as measures to strengthen tenant protection, including the elimination of vacancy decontrol. His letter was signed by 23 other state senators, and by 63 members of the State Assembly, including Assembly Member Joan Millman. The full text of the letter follows the jump.

(Albany, NY) – With rent regulation laws that protect affordable housing for over 2.5 million tenants in New York City and the surrounding counties (Westchester, Nassau, and Rockland) dangerously close to expiring, Senator Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) joined Senate and Assembly Democrats and housing advocates to urge Governor Andrew Cuomo to include tenant protections in this year’s State Budget.

In the face of some of the most significant and potentially damaging government budget cuts in recent memory, Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement House will hold a town hall meeting on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 from 6:30-8:00 pm at its headquarters in the Queensbridge Houses at 10-25 41st Avenue in Long Island City.

The following proposed cuts will be the main topic for discussion:

Senior Services: Cuts to Title XX funds in the Governor's Executive Budget would force the NYC Department for the Aging to close 105 senior centers. The loss of $24 million in these funds would be devastating, and affect over 8,000 seniors in New York City.

A coalition comprising nearly every Democratic state lawmaker from New York City urged Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in a letter, posted below, on Wednesday to press for extending and tightening the state’s rent regulation laws as part of the budget deal he is negotiating with the Legislature.

“If the state does not act, millions of working- and middle-class New Yorkers will be at immediate risk of losing their homes,” warned the lawmakers, about 90 of whom signed the letter to Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat. “We ask that you act boldly on tenants’ behalf by requiring these reforms to be a part of any budget agreement.”

State Senator Gustavo Rivera (D-Bronx) joined Senator Jeff Klein (D-Westchester/Bronx) and Foreclosure Prevention Providers at the Bronx County Courthouse on Friday to call for the renewal of funds for the Foreclosure Prevention Services Program in the 2010 Executive Budget.

“We know the foreclosure crisis isn't over because our neighbors, family and friends are feeling squeezed and struggle with issues of foreclosure every day in the Bronx, but if that weren’t enough, experts are telling us that we are only one third of the way through the foreclosure crisis,” said Senator Rivera.

Elected Officials and Foreclosure Prevention Providers push for immediate action in the 2012 Executive Budget

BRONX, NY – State Senator Jeff Klein (D- Bronx/ Westchester) and Senator Gustavo Rivera (D-Bronx) joined Foreclosure Prevention Providers at the Bronx County Courthouse on Friday to call for the renewal of funds for the Foreclosure Prevention Services Program in the 2012 Executive Budget.